


Ainz Ooal Gowin' Down Swingin'

by Maester_Aemon_Heterodyne



Category: Overlord - Maruyama Kugane & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other, female Ainz Ooal Gown
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:22:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29646405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maester_Aemon_Heterodyne/pseuds/Maester_Aemon_Heterodyne
Summary: Alecto mourned Yggdrasil's end, but was happy to be celebrating the end of that era with her friends.Of course, some things don't end when you expect, and all endings are also new beginnings.
Relationships: Albedo/OC Ainz, Climb/Renner Theiere Chardelon Ryle Vaiself, Enri Emmot/Nfirea Bareare, Sebas Tian/Tuareninya Veyron
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The playlist for the throne room party https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzjCeGMXKsSxjowSw1c2UpQA5Hfsq7JE5

It was in the mid-twenty-first century, as virtual reality technology grew rapidly in quality, that a new type of game took the world by storm: full-dive VRMMOs, more commonly dive games or DMMOs. 

By far the largest and most popular of these games was _Yggdrasil_. Twelve years before the present day, it had emerged as an open-world game overflowing with new places to explore and endless customisation. Voice disping and direct nerve-input allowed a person to look and sound like virtually anything they wanted, and experience the detailed world with all their senses. The game’s class system allowed players to create nigh infinitely varied builds and playstyles, providing a niche for nearly everyone. 

It had once defined the genre, so much so that the imagery and vocabulary of _Yggdrasil_ were still what nearly everyone on earth thought of when they heard the phrase DMMO. 

Twelve years on, its glory days were long passed. 

The space was essentially a conference room, but to see it would put one more in mind of a strange eldritch cathedral. Nine great chandeliers of shimmering rainbow glass floated without tether far above the ground. The ceiling, walls, and floor were sculpted of white marble, through which flowed dark veins like the mixing of coffee and cream or wisps of smoke through sunlight. The roughly circular chamber had nine equal sides, all inset with a thirty metre high stain glass window portraying detailed scenes and stories of a particular world of _Yggdrasil_. 

At the room’s centre was a large round table surrounded by forty-one identical chairs all made of the same glossy black stone. Splayed out across the table was a pile of treasures, a dozen full suits of armour could be seen amongst these riches, along with near a hundred swords and spears and bows and crossbows, a towering heap of jewellery, many alchemist’s cases full of potions, a library’s worth of scrolls and books, and a veritable mountain of other random trinkets. A large wooden chest with a glossy finish sat to the side of the mountain, where its open lid revealed a great wealth of gold coins and gems. 

The figure leading the charge of sorting these riches wore a sumptuous and rather gaudy blue scholar’s robe, its bony fingers decorated with many glittering rings. Underneath its hood could be seen no human face, but rather a bare skull, the empty eye sockets filled with nothing but two small points of burning reddish light. 

This creature was an Overlord. The pinnacle of undeath, they were infamous for their dark necromantic powers and despair-inducing presence. One might encounter such a monster as the final boss of a dungeon if luck were not with them. 

But this was no ordinary monster. It was the avatar of a player. 

“Nothing higher than Legendary,” it said, sighing slightly as it put down a shield of blue metal. Its voice was deep and echoey like a coffin lid slamming shut deep in a distant tomb, but its tone was gentle. Its mouth did move to form words; not because of any technical barrier, for Yggdrasil had no trouble creating even the most delicate and subtle of expressions, but rather because the Overlord of course had no flesh and thus no vocal cords or lips or tongue. “The plunder’s been so good recently I was hoping our final haul would be better.” 

“It’s fine, Momonga, really. We don’t have much time left to be disappointed anyway.” 

The one to reply was a tall woman with blue skin, long silvery white hair, dressed in a black kimono embroidered in gold. She had a strong and authoritative voice, not unlike a news anchor’s, the kind that instantly seized and held one’s attention no matter its volume.

This creature was a Solar Archangel, the mightiest of celestials, beings who served grand generals in the armies of the gods or hunters of the foulest fiends. 

This particular angel was however also a player, thus a friend to such foul fiends. 

“I know. Still, that whole guild didn’t have a single Mythic item?” the Overlord, Momonga, said. “Even their guild weapon is barely worth the effort of stealing.” 

“The Midnight Cats weren’t exactly a large guild. A lot of them weren’t even max level. Casuals,” she said with a sigh. 

“Would you care to do the honours now, Guildmaster? Or should I send their weapon down as a trophy too?” 

“You know I don’t believe in trophies, Momonga. Treasure is a resource.” 

“Well, it is the last day…”

“It’s just not my style.” In front of her floating gently above the table was an ornate scimitar with a red blade and a sapphire the size and shape of an egg in the pommel. She reached out and swiped her hand sideways across it, and a dialogue box appeared, saying “Deconstruct Item? Y / N.” With a tap of option “Y” the sword disappeared in a cloud of blue sparks, leaving behind a glowing blue gem the size of a baseball. 

Momonga took that as his queue to open a dialogue box of his own. After selecting a couple of options, the wooden chest containing their plundered gold and gems came to life, rising above the table on countless tiny legs, and snapped its lid shut. When it opened no coins were visible. It then tilted itself toward the piles of armour and weapons and trinkets, opened wide, and all were sucked inside in a tornado of lacklustre lucre. Once finished with its meal it snapped its lid shut, scuttled over to the edge of the table, and jumped to the ground with a quiet grace unnatural to luggage before hurrying off out of the room. 

A monster called a Living Vault, that amusing creature was very best in treasure transport services for the one in search of an uncluttered inventory. Momonga, the guild’s Treasurer and a natural packrat, was quite fond of them. 

“So. That’s done. What next, Guildmaster?” asked the third and final figure at the table. Contrary to the monsters it shared its seat with, one might mistake it for a normal human, a tall and clearly muscular woman with coppery reddish skin, black hair, and green almond-shaped eyes, dressed in a modest black and white gown. No one who saw those eyes would think her human, however, for the tarnished bronze of her iris surrounded a vertically slit pupil and extended from edge to edge without whites. They were the eyes of a predator, of a reptile. 

More specifically, the eyes of a dragon. 

In _Yggdrasil_ , players could choose their character races from three broad groups; humanoid, demihuman and heteromorphic.

Humanoids were the basic player type and comprised humans, dwarves, wood elves, and the like. Demihumans tended to be ugly, but possessed superior attributes to humanoids. Examples of demihumans were goblins, beastmen, ogres, and so on. 

Finally, heteromorphic races had monstrous abilities, but despite their stats being generally higher than those of other races, they also possessed various drawbacks. There were around seven hundred playable races in total, including the advanced versions of these races, creatures most games would never allow for players. 

Naturally, the Overlord, Solar Angel, and Water Dragon were among those high-tier heteromorphic races.

“I don’t know, Mochi,” Alecto admitted. “I wanted to end the night in the Throne Room. We were always going to make our last stand there, after all. And I have something good prepared for us then. But I didn’t really have any other plans. Frankly I thought the raid would take longer. We’ve still got more than an hour to kill.”

“Do you maybe want to fight something else?” the dragon, Mochi, offered. 

“Not particularly.” 

“What about a tour?” Momonga suggested. “We could take a walk around the Ninth Floor. We don’t usually walk around the base casually. I think it would be nice to, since we won’t have another chance.”

“I like that idea,” Mochi said with a nod. “We put so much work into it but we barely see anything but our houses. We don’t even use this room much anymore.”

“Hmm. Yes, let’s do that.” Alecto rose from her seat. “Come on, let’s go mount up.” 

“Wait, Guildmaster,” Momonga said, raising a bony hand. “You should take the Staff.” 

Alecto tried to put out her arms in refusal, but was interrupted. 

“Yes! The Staff!” Mochi agreed, overruling her gesture.

“Really? Are you sure you want to move it?”

“Like I said about the tour, there won’t be another chance,” Momonga explained. “I know you’re cautious about it, but it’s now or never. Besides it’s not like we’re taking it outside.”

“I suppose, but still, moving it takes a majority vote-”

“I vote yes! And so does Momonga. There’s only the three of us, and two votes yes and one abstention makes a majority, right?”

Alecto thought to protest further, but found herself feeling suddenly deflated. “Just the three of us…” The guild’s registry showed twenty-nine of their original forty-one still present but it had been over a month since anyone but the three present had logged in. “Alright. Let’s do it.” Alecto raised her hand towards the ceiling and gave a quick flourish, as if beckoning someone over to her. 

The domed ceiling in the centre of the hall opened, stone flowing like water, parting to reveal a dark space beyond. A point of light appeared from within and began floating downwards to the guildmaster’s outraised hand. As is descended its form gradually became apparent: a strange and twisted kerykeion, two golden snakes writhing around a central spire, topped with the heads of a wolf, viper, lion, eagle, crocodile, shark, and kraken, and in the mouths of each a gem of a different colour. Anyone who saw would know instantly that it was of incalculable value. 

And indeed it was: this was the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, the symbol of that guild, a weapon that could be said to define them. Despite its enormous power, guild weapons were always kept secreted away, hidden and well-defended against incursion, since the loss and destruction of the weapon would result in the immediate dissolution of the guild and loss of all its privileges until another weapon was forged. Such had happened just minutes prior to the Midnight Cats. Ainz Ooal Gown may have been a guild at the very peak of guilds in _Yggdrasil,_ but they were no exception. 

For nearly two months, everyone had adventured every day with the sole purpose of assembling the guild weapon.

Back then, they had held contests to see who could collect more raw materials more quickly, and there had been many disputes over the appearance of weapon. But slowly, after everyone’s opinions were gathered, the weapon gradually took shape.

That period of time had been the prime of Ainz Ooal Gown, when all their most glorious memories had been made. People had dragged themselves online after a gruelling day at work, others had argued with their wives because they played until they neglected their families, and some even laughed and said they had taken special leave to stay home from work and log on to the game.

There were times when they had spent entire days doing nothing but talking about silly things for amusement. There were times when they would draw up plans for adventures, and times when they wandered about looking for treasure. They had mounted daring raids on top guilds’ home bases and laid siege to their strongholds. Once, they had been attacked by a World Class Enemy — an immensely powerful, hidden boss monster — and the guild had nearly been destroyed as a result. They had also discovered many previously unknown resources, and they had placed all sorts of monsters in their guild base in order to eliminate invading players.

Those days were long gone now, leaving behind only a staff and guild base. 

As the Staff slowly came to a rest in front of her, Alecto took a deep breath and reached out to take it. The moment her hand touched it a kilometre-long list of buff and status effect announcements scrolled across the corner of her field of vision, sending a chill down her spine at the sheer weight of such power. It was nothing but ones and zeroes, but it still felt alive in her hand, as if ready to leap away and wreak bloody vengeance upon the world on its own. It could do so too if she willed it. 

“Regal. As befitting the Master of Ainz Ooal Gown,” Momonga stated. His face of course did not move, but Alecto had known him for long enough to hear the smile in his voice.

“A proper Angel of Death,” Mochi said. “Hail the Queen of Monsters!”

“Not quite there yet,” Alecto said. “The Queen of Monsters should be dressed the part too.” After a brief foray into her inventory her black kimono vanished, replaced by a much more sumptuous hooded black robe, along with a flowing cloak. Several kilograms of jewelry appeared about her body, decorating her fingers, wrists, neck, ears, and waist in precious metals and stones. 

Of course, those mere materials no matter what they were had but trifling value next to the enchantments they carried, for every item she now wore was of the very highest tier, commensurate with her status as the leader of Ainz Ooal Gown. This was Alecto’s full combat suit. If it had a value in terms of money, probably no one but her could have paid such a price. 

Between the Staff and dark robes, one might easily mistake her for the high priest of some eldritch abomination. 

“Now. Long live Ainz Ooal Gown!” Two taps of the Staff against the ground prompted it to glow, emitting an otherworldly light that seemed to drain all the other light in the room away. In the margins of the glow strange and amorphous shapes drifted lazily, strange, ghostly, transparent things, the jellyfish of some arcane abyss. From Alecto’s back three pairs of radiant white bird wings appeared through the glow, unfurling out over ten metres tip to tip then flaring upwards. 

“Long live the Queen! Long live Ainz Ooal Gown!” Momonga and Mochi chanted together, bowing deeply as they did. 

The glow vanished with another tap of the Staff. 

“You really have a talent for theatre, Ally,” Mochi said. 

“You keep saying that.”

“It keeps being true.” 

Although not an avid roleplayer, many among Ainz Ooal Gown were, or had been, at least, so Alecto had learned to get used to their extravagant overacting and how not to feel like an idiot while acting like one. It didn’t help that the guild made decisions democratically, making her position more one of mediator than dictator, and so acting like a queen always felt out of place. “Well. Perhaps I’ll let loose a little more tonight. No screenshots though.” 

  
  


OOOOO

  
  


The Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, the home of Ainz Ooal Gown, was not an ordinary guild hall. Once upon a time it had been a dungeon. 

Almost ten years ago, Alecto’s nameless clan of four had encountered another clan of heteromorphic players called Nine’s Own Goal while exploring the outside of an unknown dungeon. Since her four had been higher level than the nine at the time, it worked out that they were roughly evenly matched, and so instead of fighting for first rights they resolved to work together to explore the dungeon and share in its plunder. 

This was a tremendous risk: there was almost nothing more dangerous than wandering into an unexplored dungeon in a game where detailed intelligence was typically the difference between possible success and certain death. 

And yet, numbering just thirteen, they had succeeded. Against great odds their skill and teamwork and sheer dumb luck had carried them through to defeating the final boss on their first try. It was a slow and grueling slog, for the dungeon was a vast and perilous place, but after a week of careful advances and camping in situ they had finally defeated the mighty archlich Nazarick that ruled the decaying rainforests of the Sixth Floor.

To clear a completely unknown dungeon in one go, on the first try no less, was literally unprecedented. It was a feat only Ainz Ooal Gown had ever accomplished before or since, and with Yggdrasil set to end so shortly their record would stand forever. 

Originally a dungeon of six floors, under Ainz Ooal Gown the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick had expanded to ten floors, each one large enough to dungeon on their own and full to bursting with customised monsters and bosses, and each one with its own unique theme. The first three floors were a tomb, the Fourth an arctic wasteland, the Fifth a city, the Sixth a poison rainforest, the Seventh a volcanic hellscape, the Eighth a cast cave. 

The Ninth and Tenth floors, however, were not the dangerous obstacles of the higher reaches, but rather the actual home base of the guild.

  
  


OOOOO

  
  


In the enormous vaulted cavern that was the Ninth Floor, Ainz Ooal Gown had created an entire city to supplement the needs of people shut out of the game’s proper market, essentially turning the dungeon into a self-sustaining arcology.

Lining the many lanes and alleys were facilities for every conceivable service or good that one might need, including barbershops, item repair services, magic item shops, alchemy shops, ingredient and reagent depots, several taverns, a fishing tackle shop, a printing house, a cartographer, as maps in Yggdrasil had to be crafted manually, a huge magical stable which housed everything from horses and camels to phoenixes and giant insects and dinosaurs, several restaurants, crafting workshops including a musical instrument store, a concert hall, and so on. 

Through the streets clopped the sound of hooves. Three monsters, none of which could be accurately called horses though they might resemble them in broad outline, gently trotted down the main street of the town carrying a trio of passengers in dark clothing. 

“So, the client didn’t deliver the data on time, and he threatened to fire _you_ out for that?” Mochi said, incredulous. 

“How could the client be expected to remember it? They only set the deadline themselves. I mean, it’s only been their main project for what, six months? How could they be at fault for not sending it over when they insisted they would?” Momonga explained. 

“Seriously, Momonga, you need to get a different job. That boss is not worth it.”

“You know how it is, Mochi. With my skillset and no one hiring I’m lucky to be where I am.”

“I know, but you shouldn’t think of it that way. You’re a really hard worker and any company would be lucky to have you.”

Momonga’s skeletal face would have smiled modestly if it could. 

A lot of people were averse to discussing reality in a virtual world. It was fairly normal for people to not want to talk about their offline lives in a game. 

However, this was not so for the two of them. Ainz Ooal Gown had two conditions for prospective members: The first was that everyone had to be a working member of society. The other was that they had to play heteromorphic characters.

Because of these rules, the topics they discussed often revolved around their jobs in the real world, and conversation such as this could be considered standard fare for the guild. 

Alecto, Momonga, and Mochi were something of a special case even then. Alecto and Mochi had met in high school many years ago and had played _Yggdrasil_ together since the moment it launched, and Momonga had been a part of the guild leadership since it was formed, a constant presence for them both ever since.

While Mochi and Momonga chatted about unhelpful clients and demanding bosses and pitiful wages, Alecto checked her menu repeatedly, looking for new notifications even when she knew there were none. 

Eventually the group approached the end of their tour, a building on a hill in the centre of the town. It was an imposing construction of blue-grey stone in Greco-Roman style, built to resemble a temple. The Ashurbanipal, the guild’s library and meeting hall, the place where they had started. Rather than heading back to the meeting room upon dismounting they instead made their way through the central chamber of the building towards the top of a grand staircase. 

There was a maid stationed next to the stairs. She was blonde and model tall, dressed in a deep blue gown under a long white apron. Alecto didn’t recognise her, for there were no shortage of maids among the custom-created NPCs of Nazarick, but she had an idea of who would. 

“Akatsuki?” 

“Yes?” Mochi replied, audibly puzzled at the use of her real name. 

“Is there any chance you know this maid?”

“Hah. Frankly, Alyssa, I’m a little offended.”

“Offended? I mean, you DO like maids, I thought you might have an idea…”

“Oh, no, I’m offended by your doubt. Of _course_ I know this maid. She’s Sera. One of Whitebrim’s, one of his last and least-developed. She’s a gentle, polite, eager girl, and a good cook too, but never let her near desserts because she _will_ burn anything with sugar. Seriously Alyssa, did you actually think for a second I wouldn’t recognise her? I know every maid in this Tomb better than their creators do.” 

“That’s my girl,” Alecto - Alyssa - muttered. “You don’t write maid manga for no reason.” She then approached the maid and asked her directly. “Sera, yes?”

“Yes, Alecto-sama,” the maid, Sera, replied, bowing in deference to the Guildmaster. 

While the AIs that animated NPCs in Yggdrasil were not as advanced as the kind found in more recent video games, now far from the state-of-the-art they were on release twelve years ago, one could almost forget they weren’t real people if one kept conversations fairly simple. They could even emulate the basic personality traits one programmed into their flavour text. 

“One of Whitebrim’s… Hah. A funny man, Whitebrim. ‘Maid uniforms are justice!’ ‘Maid uniforms are their secret weapons!’ No wonder Akatsuki helped you become a mangaka, with such a passion in common… I wish you could have been here at the end.” Alecto bowed deeply to the maid. This was not a polite or even deferential bow, but rather an apology, an admission of fault, of guilt. “Thank you for all your hard work.” 

Although Mochi was quite surprised at the gesture, Momonga, expressionless as usual, seemed to understand. 

“Alecto-sama honours me,” the maid said, bowing once again. 

Before descending the stairs Alecto took one last look at her notifications. Nothing. 

“No one?” Mochi said, noticing her friend’s motions, her disdain unconcealed. 

“No one,” Alecto confirmed. “Everyone who replied said they couldn’t make it, and I told them all to show up half an hour ago if they were coming. I only sent it out this morning though, on a Thursday no less, so I wasn’t really expecting anyone to show up on such short notice.”

“That’s shitty.”

“It is. ‘See you later.’ ‘Let’s meet up again some time.’ ‘Where and when we meet again-’” Alecto turned towards empty space, as if addressing some invisible presence. “Today’s the last day of the game, I know you’re tired, but we’ll never have a chance like this again, why don’t we stay together until the end… Apparently that was too much to ask.” 

No one spoke for a long moment. 

Momonga eventually broke the silence. “Thank you, Alecto. Alyssa. You stayed on as guildmaster for all these years…”

“You know there’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

“Still. I know that everyone appreciates your dedication. I appreciate your dedication.”

“As I appreciate yours, Momonga, and yours, Mochi. Now, come on, it looks like it’s time for my surprise.” 

The trio proceeded in companionable silence down the staircase as the Ninth Floor became the Tenth. Cut from a single colossal block of pink marble and overlaid with red carpet, it was wide enough for five to walk at arms’ length and then some. Soft magic lights illuminated from above all around as it curved gently ever downward. 

At its base the stairs opened up into a richly-furnished Victorian-style parlour large enough to be a ballroom in its own right. Dozens of tables lay about the room, each one laden high with platters of biscuits and pastries and other appetizers, complemented by many steaming teapots. Due to the legal restrictions most countries put on smells and tastes in full-dive nerve gear, the food and drink in Yggdrasil were all vapid and flavourless, but the room still smelled pleasant. 

Across the parlour from the stairs’ landing were a set of tall wood double doors. Flanking - indeed, guarding - them were seven figures, six maids and a butler. These were not like Sera or other maids throughout the Tomb, clearly being warriors instead of serving staff. They wore what would be more accurately described as maid-themed battle armour than maid uniforms. Several carried weapons. Even the unarmed and tuxedoed butler had a sense of strength and danger to him, as if made of steel. 

Originally, the combat maids were intended to be a last line of defense against invaders. However, if enemy players could penetrate this deeply into the tomb, they would be able to handily defeat them, so they were little more than speedbumps to buy time. However, no player had ever made it this far, so they had been waiting here for orders.

  
  


OOOOO

  
  


Among the many benefits a large guild hall provided the players who held it, one of the most important was the ability to create custom NPCs to defend it while the members of the guild were away. These broadly came in two categories: pop or spawn monsters, these being fairly ordinary monsters who would respawn after they were killed; and elite monsters, creatures made stronger by having class levels in addition to racial traits, which you had to pay to bring back in the event invading players or marauding monsters killed them. 

The number of each a particular hall could support was determined by its size class. One could expand the NPC capacity of a guildhall through in-game rewards, real-world purchases from the game’s cash shop, and various other means. On top of this capacity, one could also acquire the services of naturally-occurring monsters from the open wilds, but there was no getting those back if they died. 

This measure of customisation allowed every guild so lucky as to have a base to defend their homes in their own unique idiom. One noteworthy or perhaps notorious guild, called Neko-sama Dai Ōkoku or Great Cat Kingdom, famously fielded only feline fighters in fortifying their fortress (as their recruitment posters proudly proclaimed in English). 

As a Dungeon-class guildhall, the only of its size in all of _Yggdrasil_ , Nazarick could support an astonishingly large number of NPCs. Ainz Ooal Gown had essentially been allowed to build a base on top of the existing structure of the Dungeon, inheriting all the monsters that already dwelled there, mostly various kinds of undead, in addition to those available for a new base. The guild had also pursued every avenue there was for expanding upon this capacity. The result was a veritable army of defenders. 

This was not born of aimless paranoia on their part, but was instead a very measured and reasonable response to being the game’s most hated PvP guild and also by far the smallest of their wealth and renown, thus the biggest target there was for the vengeful, greedy, and ambitious. Or, in other words, everyone. 

  
  


OOOOO

  
  


“Welcome, Alecto-sama,” the butler said. He and all the battle maids bowed. 

“Good evening, Sebas,” Alecto replied. “Touch Me created you, yes? You look so much like him.” 

“I have the honour to have been created by Touch Me-sama, Alecto-sama,” Sebas affirmed. 

“Good. Open the doors, and follow us. Maids, you all too.”

All the NPCs nodded in acknowledgement and fell in behind the Guildmaster. 

“‘Follow us?’” Mochi repeated, confused. 

“It’s part of the plan,” Alecto explained. “A queen should have an entourage, right?” 

“I suppose.” 

Alecto took another step towards the doors. They opened with a gentle creaking, revealing a passage dimly-lit from above by four-coloured lamps and flanked by shadowy figures. As the entourage advanced, the figures revealed themselves to be a dizzying variety of forms, everything from twisted gargoyles to battle mechs to children in ballroom gowns, 72 in total. Each stood on a short pedestal bearing its name, half-recessed into semicircular niches in the walls. Though as lifelike as any NPCs, they stood still as statues. 

This passage was called the Lemegeton, named for the Lesser Key of Solomon, a magical grimoire. It was the very final line of defense between invaders and the Throne Room, where the gathered members of the guild would await whatever terrifying threat could force its way so far into the Tomb. The statues were golems, crafted of various powerful magical alloys to be almost immune to both magic and physical damage. The lamps that lit the hall were also monsters, each one containing several powerful elementals. 

Alecto kept her eye on them as the group passed. Would they attack her or her retinue? 

“Ulbert-san…”

Ulbert Alain Odle. He was arguably the most obsessed with the idea of “evil” in the guild.

“Was it because of chuunibyou…”

Alecto felt that way as she proceeded down the hall.

“Will these many statues attack?”

She was right to feel so uneasy.

Even Alecto did not fully grasp the secrets of all the mechanisms in this dungeon. It would not be strange if one of the retired guild members had left a strange sort of present behind. And the one who had designed this hallway was just such a person.

In the past, he had designed a very powerful golem, but shortly after activation, a flaw in the combat AI made itself known and it attacked everyone around it. Whether it was intentional or not had never been clear. 

The golems remained lifeless, however, and the group passed in peace. 

The end of the hall widened into a semicircular chamber. The ten-metre-high doors to the throne room were crafted of pure scarletite, covered in intricate carvings that glowed with the blue-green of radioactive paint. One could almost feel the power of the thousands of defensive spells that warded the doors, like the smell of a storm on the air, or static electricity in a dry room. No attacker would pass such a barrier lightly; probably no place in _Yggdrasil_ could be said to be so well-defended. 

Yet for their dungeon’s master, the doors opened without fuss, parting ponderously in deference to their tremendous weight. 

The sight they revealed never failed to take Alecto’s breath away. Large enough to house a small stadium, fully a hundred metres square and about a third as high, the Throne Room of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick was nearly the most impressive place in Yggdrasil. It could fairly be called the _magnum opus_ of Ainz Ooal Gown’s artists. 

The floor was crafted of every colour of marble, each piece cut in such a way that they formed maps of all of the nine realms of the World Tree. Down the centre of the room was a long red carpet that led one towards the throne itself. Each of the walls was decorated with murals, frescoes, paintings, and reliefs. 

Flanking that broad path were forty two pillars, each about a metre wide, and each one covered in artwork depicting everything from Renaissance paintings to Egyptian hieroglyphs to a grim coating of bones. 

Where the pillars met the ceiling, they did not meet more stone, and instead plunged into an upside-down aquarium pool replete with fish and plants and more. Along the walls were waterfalls going both up and down to recycle the water, creating a gentle white noise throughout the room. 

Beneath the pool, a dozen elephant-sized chandeliers of many-coloured crystals hung in mid-air, their light reflecting off the water and flickering gently. 

The throne itself, where the Guildmaster would hold court on special occasions, was a mountain of obsidian and bronze resting atop a tall platform of dark glossy jade. The back wall behind it depicted the intricate crest of Ainz Ooal Gown in black tile from floor to pool, looming and twisting like a cloud of rising smoke. 

There really was no better place to spend this game’s last minutes. 

Head held high, Alecto led her entourage down the long carpet for the last time with all the ceremony she could muster. 

“Wait, what? What are they all doing here?” Mochi asked. “Was this your plan?”

Alecto smiled broadly. “Part of it. You’ll see.” 

Normally, the Throne Room would be unoccupied, but now below the throne were several tables set out along with a grand piano, and gathered around them were a colourful assortment of guests, roughly a hundred in all. Some looked fairly normal, such as a man in a red pinstripe suit or a young girl in a black ballroom gown, and others were stranger, such as a tall bipedal insect made seemingly out of ice or a creature that resembled nothing so much as a beached whale with an octopus on its head dressed in a cherry red string bikini. A pair of elf children in school uniforms, obviously siblings, sat on the edge of a table with a creature that resembled a brain with deer antlers splayed across their laps. A black spider the size of a car with many eyes on flexible stalks sat reading a book it held in its pedipalps. Beside it a blindfolded girl in shrine priestess clothing played cards with a blob of magma, seemingly unaffected by the heat. 

Nearly all the personal creations of Ainz Ooal Gown were gathered here in one great menagerie. 

As the procession approached, the assembled creatures took notice, all standing to attention and bowing. From among them, one figure rose and made its way to the front of the group to greet the newcomers. 

The figure was a tall, curvy woman whose long glossy black hair contrasted with milky pale skin. She was dressed in a white silk gown. Over her dress was a necklace that resembled a golden spiderweb, and her arms were sheathed in long white gloves. Her face held a beautiful, almost motherly smile, her eyes a gentleness to match, marred only by their cat-slitted irises. The picture of motherliness was further complicated by the ivory white horns protruding from the sides of her head, curving forward and ending near her forehead in a manner which gave the impression of a crown, and by her lower back, where a pair of black feathery wings were anchored. 

She was the Guardian Overseer of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, Albedo, the Warden of the Throne and Shield of Ainz Ooal Gown. She was in charge of the seven NPC Floor Guardians; In other words, she was the highest-ranked non-player character in the Tomb.

She bowed again where she and the newcomers met. “Welcome, o Supreme Ones,” she said. 

Alecto gave her a polite bow in return. “Good evening, Albedo.”

“I’d almost forgotten what an artist Tabula was,” Momonga said from behind her. Albedo had been crafted lovingly by Tabula Smaragdina, a member of the guild who was well-known for his dedicated roleplaying and numerous and diverse contributions to the Tomb’s custom NPC pool. 

“He was creative,” Alecto replied. “Most of his works aren’t so pretty.”

“Guildmaster, can you open up her flavour text?” Momonga asked. “I’m interested to see what he said about her there.”

“Sure. But fair warning, it’s a lot.” Alecto waved the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown in front of Albedo, opening the developer tools like a lock and key. A couple of additional taps brought up her written description and made it visible to anyone. 

The little points of red light that served as Momonga’s eyes flared with surprise at the PhD thesis’ worth of mad ramblings passing before him. 

“You weren’t kidding,” Mochi said, joining the examination. “Just skip to the end, there’s bound to be something interesting there… wait what?”

The final line read: _Incidentally, she is a slut._

“A placeholder Tabula never got around to fixing,” Alecto hazarded. “I can’t imagine he would intentionally leave it at that.”

“Can I fix it?” Mochi asked, her predatory eyes suddenly full of passion. “She should be complete in the end.”

“No, don’t th- actually, if it’s a placeholder, he probably wouldn’t mind. Here.” Alecto stood aside to let Mochi perform her edits. 

And immediately regretted it. _Incidentally, she is a slut_ was replaced with _Incidentally, she loves Alecto-_

“And we’re done here.” The dialogue box vanished with another swipe of the Staff. “Anyway. Let’s get this party going, shall we? At ease,” she commanded, turning to the maids and butler. The seven NPCs parted and began to mingle into the crowd. 

“Alecto, this is… this is too much,” Momonga began to protest, looking around the crowd and seeing it properly. “All of the Floor Guardians are here! Who’s defending-” 

“Who’s attacking?” Alecto interrupted. “The Tomb’s warning systems work fine if anything happens. Besides, who would attack us now? Everyone else is probably having parties too. Enjoy the moment, and see the fruits of our labours!”

With a practised motion of her wrist she then drew up her inventory and selected an item from it after a moment of searching. She placed the item on a table on the side of the cluster. It was a flat object perhaps forty centimetres square, with a transparent glass lid. Opening the lid revealed a circular depression, beside which lay a thin rod on a pivot mount. Alecto then withdrew a crystalline disk from her inventory and slotted it neatly into place in the device. A tap to the centre of the disk sent it spinning, and produced many concentric rings of colour across it. Alecto placed the rod’s tip on the innermost ring, and a moment later, music sounded out through the hall. 

_When are you gonna come down?_ a sweet voice gently inquired of all gathered. _When are you going to land? I know I should have stayed on the farm, I should’ve listened to my old man…_

“Elton John? Now? Really?” Mochi snorted. “Do you not have _any_ music from this century?”

“Do you think I _know_ any music from this century? Have I ever, in all the years you’ve known me?”

“That’s true.”

This device, fashioned in the likeness of an old vinyl record player, was a magic item that allowed one to listen to music stored on one’s computer or streamed from their favoured service. 

One could access other file types too, for purposes such as reading real-world books or keeping a copy of the game’s often unreliable player-made guide, or even editing text and image documents as if they were 3D items. Players who worked a lot from home could actually do so from in-game if they could work offline normally. 

One could even share them player to player in much the manner of social media. Having movie night in your guildhall was much more interesting than in your living room, and everyone could watch together through that feature. This ability was one of Yggdrasil’s most popular features, especially since actual internet browsing was impossible in-game, and thus there was no other way to access resources such as the game wiki without fully logging out first.

Of course, having real-world files shareable person-to-person also meant piracy was abundant, and though many media companies complained, the legal fees had ultimately become no more than a minor background cost amidst the vast expenses of running a full-dive MMO. 

“And now,” Alecto intoned dramatically, “we have reached our main event. Please, everyone, take a seat. Demiurge, if you would be so kind.” 

As the crowd gathered and found places to sit at the various tables, a tall, lean man wearing a red pinstripe suit approached the table with the record player. “Hello, o Supreme Ones,” he said. “I am Demiurge. I was created by the great Ulbert Alain Odle-sama, and I wish to tell you a story of my noble creator.” 

Above the record player a illusory video began to play in midair, showing several monstrous creatures walking through a narrow stone passage, likely a cave. Among the party could be seen Ulbert himself, a hulking red demon with a goat head dressed in a fine suit, top hat, and monocle, as well as several other members of Ainz Ooal Gown including the three currently watching. “Five years ago, the Supreme Ones were exploring a cave in Muspelheim…”

“This is what you planned, Ally?” Mochi was already as close to tears as her avatar would allow.

“I thought it would be a good way to end. Celebrating what we were, rather than despairing.”

“And you started with Ulbert…”

“I know how much he meant to you. It was only right we celebrate who he was, too.”

“How long did this take you?” Momonga wondered aloud, his voice shaky too. “Are they all going to talk?” 

“No, only a few. I prepared about half an hour of stories, then a slideshow.” 

“This is nothing like what I expected.”

The trio relaxed into the stories Alecto had prepared. Demiurge recounted Ulbert blowing up half a dungeon with his destruction magic. Albedo told of Tabula Smaragdina’s design process, showing the group his concept art for various NPCs and locations throughout the Tomb, including Albedo herself. Sebas told of his creator Touch Me founding the clan Nine’s Own Goal by rescuing heteromorphic players from marauding PKers. Story after story, memory after memory. Finally, at the end, Momonga’s own custom NPC, a shapeshifting doppelgänger named Pandora’s Actor, acted out the first meeting of the two clans that would form Ainz Ooal Gown by transforming into different guild members, a one-man-show no real actor could have put on. 

When his presentation finally ended, the NPCs seated all around cheered for the performance. They hadn’t been programmed to do that, not by Alecto, but such was the power of artificial intelligence. 

A new song began as the slideshow did. _On the first part of the journey, I was lookin’ at all the life; there were plants and birds and rocks and things, there was sand and hills and rings…_

“Fifteen minutes,” Alecto said. As she watched the slides go by, something caught her eye and drew her up out of her seat. One of the forty-two decorated pillars, the one nearest the throne to the left. It didn’t so much resemble an object as much as a hole into space and time, a window to distant stars, where comets and nebulae and galaxies swirled through the void. “Alecto,” she muttered. 

The pillar immediately behind it looked like nothing so much as a cylindrical planet seen from space. A 3-D atmosphere replete with weather wreathed from floor to ceiling pool, covering oceans and continents. Tiny suns and moons chased each other in endless wandering orbits. “Blue Planet,” Alecto said, touching the side of the pillar. Her hand met water in the strange world’s seas. 

“Um, Ally? What are you…” Mochi inquired. 

“Momonga,” Alecto said, ignoring the question, or rather not noticing it, while touching the next pillar, one covered in endless bones. 

“Ulbert Alain Odle.” A pillar painted in Renaissance style portraying demons and angels in many scenes of divine war. 

“Ankoro Mocchi Mochi.” A pillar of brass, etched with images of gears and machinery, pictures of dragons and airships and automatons. 

“Tigris Euphrates.” A pillar of clay into which countless ancient texts had been pressed. The _Epic of Gilgamesh_ in Sumerian cuneiform, the Egyptian _Book of the Dead_ in hieroglyphs, poems in ancient Mayan, excerpts from the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey,_ Vedic scripture in Sanskrit, and so on. 

By this point Mochi and Momonga were following her closely and imitating her, touching each pillar as she did like talismans. One by one, they counted them, saying aloud the names of all forty-one members of the guild. All the while music played on through the hall: _But the drum-beat strains of the night remain, in the rhythm of the newborn day. You know some time you're bound to leave her, but for now you're gonna stay, in the year of the cat…_

Alecto paused for a long moment before the forty-second pillar. It was not a coherent art work like the rest, but collage of countless many pieces. “Everyone,” she said, voice cracking slightly. “Thank you all, once again.” 

A small _ding_ in her signalled the end of the road. “11:57. Three minutes left.” Alecto then ran to the throne and stood before it, looking down upon the myriad creatures assembled. “Attention!” she called out. Six radiant wings spread from her back, stretching out as wide as they went, and a final song change accompanied her call. _Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise,_ sang the record. _Run in the shadows, damn your love, damn your lies…_

“Come forward, guardians of Nazarick, warriors of Ainz Ooal Gown!” 

The crowd of monsters rose from their seats and began to form neat rows before the throne. Three among the panoply came forward further still: Mochi and Momonga, as her last remaining guildmates, and Albedo, as the Warden of the Throne. 

“In these moments, we celebrate Ainz Ooal Gown! We celebrate our achievements, our passions, our friendship! We celebrate who we are, and what we became through our hard work!” 

The crowd cheered. 

“We celebrate the labour that made the Great Tomb of Nazarick, a citadel without equal! And we celebrate you, brave warriors, for without your stout and unstoppable defense this Tomb and this Guild would have long ago fallen, and we ourselves with it.” 

Cheers again, this time louder, and led by Mochi and Momonga. 

“We mourn the passing of our dear Ulbert, may he rest in peace. We hope the best for Luci*fer, may he find rest one day. We remember ten years of peace and plenty, of daring raids and lazy sunday afternoons, of hopes and fears and loves and friends. We celebrate all that was in these ten years, and the knowledge that it shall never be forgotten by those who have left, not if they should live to a hundred and twenty. Dreams of this time will be with us forever.”

Cheers again, more solemn this time. 

_And if you don’t love me now, then you’ll never love me again. I can still hear you saying, we must never break the chain…_

“Now kneel. Kneel before your Queen!” 

As one, the whole crowd knelt. Alecto withdrew her wings and sat back on the throne, taking her place as Guildmaster of Ainz Ooal Gown - no, Queen of Nazarick - for the last time. The scene before her was truly breathtaking. All the assembled might of Nazarick, the grandness and opulence of the Throne Room, the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown floating gently beside the throne, and her friends there with her, celebrating the end of an era. 

_Goodbye, everyone. These last years have been wonderful._

“Seriously, Ally, you need to audition somewhere,” Mochi said, shattering the moment. 

“No theatre!” 

23:59:50, the clock read. _And if you don’t love me now, then you’ll never love me again. I can still hear you saying, we must never break the chain…_

_Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six._

_Five._

_Four._

_Three._ Alecto closed her eyes, easing into the game's final throes.

_Two._

_One._

_Zero._


	2. Chapter 2

_ Three. _

_ Two.  _

_ One.  _

_ Zero.  _

When Alecto opened her eyes, she found that nothing had changed; the Throne Room exactly as she had left it, minus Momonga and Mochi. 

_ Huh? Why didn’t the server log me off?  _

She opened the menu to check for any announcements or messages. Or, she made the movement to open it, drawing her right hand downward in front of her, but nothing happened. 

_ Oh no… did they maybe change the console motions? No, they’ve used the same motion for the system menu since the alpha, and I never changed it from default, it can’t be that an update reset it.  _

_ Do I need to use verbal commands?  _ “System: Eject!” she said, triggering her dive gear to disengage. 

It didn’t happen. 

The ‘System: Eject’ command was built into her gear, it shouldn’t have even been possible to turn it off remotely. Disabling it remotely amounted to cyber-kidnapping. 

“Call GM!” she said. No response. 

She tried casting a spell. “[Message: Moderator].” Nothing, not even an icon in the corner of her field of view showing an expended spell slot. 

What was there left to try? An emergency eject? Yes, that could work. Telling the system to call emergency services would automatically disconnect her from her game and dial for help. Such was necessary in the event of medical issues that could arise while one was in full dive. While the gear could detect many basic conditions like abnormal blood sugar, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, and the like and would respond automatically, a manual input was still vital for unforeseeable events. 

“Call 119!” 

There was a response this time. Not the one she was hoping for, though. 

“Alecto-sama? Is something wrong?” 

Alecto looked around confusedly for the speaker, and found Albedo staring at her, looking up from the base of the Throne where she knelt, showing a worried expression. 

NPCs were not, as a general principal, known for their concern for players’ wellbeing. They never asked unless it was part of preordained quest interactions and of course could not care even then. 

“Are you alright?” she asked. Still kneeling she crawled closer to the throne. “Is something the matter?”

“Um, I’m okay?” Alecto managed. “The GM Call isn’t working, is all.”  _ Why’s she even asking anyway…  _

“Please forgive my inability to answer the Supreme One’s questions about this “‘GM Call.’” Albedo looked genuinely ashamed. “I apologize for not meeting your expectations. Nothing would please me more than a chance to make up for my prior mistake. Please, command me as you see fit.”

_ How animated of her. That part’s normal, I suppose.  _ NPCs usually lacked meta-awareness of the game unless there was some important reason for them to know, such as being tutorial NPCs or promoters for real-world merch and cash shop rewards. Albedo as a guild base guardian had no reason to understand such matters. 

“Hmm. Did anything strange just happen, Albedo?”

“Strange? How do you mean?”

“Nevermind then…” 

Looking more closely at Albedo revealed something rather odd. On top of strange behaviour, she also looked more animated than usual. When she moved, her whole body shifted subtly in the same way a real body might. Muscles shifted underneath her skin, itself suddenly dynamic unlike the solid surfaces of  _ Yggdrasil.  _

Alecto looked at her own skin more closely. There were pores! And little cracks! And hair! Real, three-dimensional hairs on her arms! She could also roll up the sleeves of her robe to examine her arms, another detail not possible in the game. 

Moreover, her arms were warm.  _ Yggdrasil  _ never modelled temperature except in hazardous extremes when frostbite or heat stroke or the like threatened. 

A quick feeling-around of her body revealed that every detail that she could imagine was there and present. Teeth, a tongue, and saliva in her mouth, actual piercings in fleshy ears for earrings to hang from, toes she could wiggle around in her boots, the roughness of hair pulled the wrong direction through her fingers, the faint smell of sweat, detailed fingerprints, everything. She even had a heartbeat. 

Peeking under her robe she was also met with fully-realised breasts. A quick look at Albedo confirmed she was peeking through her own white gown, so it wasn’t just players but NPCs too. Like virtually every mass-market VR game in Japan,  _ Yggdrasil  _ had a strict and unyielding policy against R-18 content; in-game bodies were hardly more than interesting mannequins to which equipment was applied. Such tangible avatars were simply  _ verboten _ . 

_ NPCs acting off, fully rendered bodies, R-18 content- is this a realism upgrade for  _ Yggdrasil II  _ or something? I’m quite sure I never heard anything about that. Besides, they shut the servers off for updates. I should have been logged out when they put it through.  _

_ Although, maybe I was? I did have my eyes closed for a few seconds. Maybe it happened quickly. But if I got logged out, why am I back again? How? And why didn’t that happen to Mochi and Momonga?  _

“[Message: Ankoro Mocchi Mochi].” Then, a few seconds later: “[Message: Momonga].”

No response. They’d been logged off properly, it seemed. 

“[Message: Nearest Player].”

Nobody answered. No one else was on this server. At least, no one else who wanted to talk. 

Alecto’s strained, nervous, disbelieving calm was rapidly wearing thin, replaced by the intestine-wringing sensation of panic welling up from below. 

_ I am trapped, alone, on some illegal adult content hyper-realism server… Who the hell is operating this? And how did I get caught up in it!? Why me? I have work tomorrow, I don’t have time for this shit…  _

Albedo’s voice shook her out of her momentary dissociation. “Alecto-sama! Alecto-sama, please! What’s wrong?” she pleaded. “Have we displeased you? Please, give us your orders!” 

_ Give us your… What? Oh, right.  _ Alecto felt suddenly self-conscious at the sight of a crowd of a hundred NPCs all still genuflecting below her, though she was momentarily grateful for the distraction. “Um, dismissed, everyone’s dismissed, go back to your stations.” 

The assembly dissolved gradually as NPCs rose and departed the Throne Room for their original stations. Only Albedo, as the throne’s Warden, stayed put, though she got up from her kneeling position and stood to attention. 

_ Okay, panicking isn’t going to do anything. I need information. So far I know the system console won’t work, and every  _ Message  _ spell I’ve tried has failed to connect, meaning I’m probably alone here. On the other hand, the NPCs are behaving as if they’re still guild NPCs, if more intelligent.  _

_ I guess that leaves me with testing out in-game mechanics?  _

“[Fireball].” From her hand a small point of red light shot out into the open air, travelling about fifty metres before exploding with a roar into a bright ball of white flames. All as normal. Now that she was paying attention she realised that while no obvious visual indicators showed her expended spell slot, there was a sort of electric buzzing sensation all through her body when she cast the spell, and when she tried to visualise her spell slot table she could actually see the missing third-level spells from her efforts to contact the outside world. 

When she tried opening her inventory, she found a similar story: no actual visual indicators, but if she pictured it in her mind’s eye, her item list, HP, stamina, skills, and so forth were all apparent like normal. Unfortunately the same didn’t happen with the console; she was still shut out of that, but, it seemed, only that. 

She then reached into her inventory to withdraw an item. As expected, when she reached out, her hand vanished into a space of empty air, which blurred and distorted as if above a fire. She pictured a loaf of bread and could immediately make out the appearance of a small loaf amidst the blur, and so pulled it out and made it real. It had the texture and smell of actual bread, and reacted like bread when she tried to tear a piece off, coming apart easily and releasing a few crumbs into her lap. 

Items in  _ Yggdrasil  _ were famously indestructible except for when they were deleted or transformed into other items; one couldn’t even pour water out of a [Bucket of Water], because doing so would simply delete the water and leave one with an empty [Bucket]. The item [Bread] should have been unbreakable unless turned into [Bread Crumbs] or [Sliced Bread] with a knife. Not so anymore. 

It tasted good too. Moist and fluffy and a little chewy as a proper French loaf ought to be. 

_ So, spells work, and food is real now. What next?  _

As she pondered her next experiment, her eye was drawn unconsciously to Albedo, who was waiting patiently by the Throne and staring at its occupant with expectant eyes. 

_ Ah! That’s right. Dev tools. I wonder if they still work…  _ Swiping the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown at her didn’t produce a dialogue box, though it did elicit a fear response from Guardian. 

“Oh. Sorry, that was just an experiment, nothing to worry about,” Alecto informed her. 

“An experiment!” Albedo’s fear was immediately dispelled. “How may I assist you, Alecto-sama?”

“Assist me… Can you cast a spell for me?”

Requesting an NPC to do something that they weren’t programmed to, such as casting spells on demand, typically met in failure. Albedo didn’t seem to care. “What would you like me to cast?”

“Do you know the  _ Light  _ cantrip?” 

“Yes!” A candle-flame-like ball of light appeared above Albedo’s outstretched hand. 

_ She looks so pretty in the light, like a painting…  _

_ Wait, what are you thinking, idiot? Focus!  _

_ Alright. I need to keep looking for clues.  _ “If I recall correctly, you’re a Fallen Empyrean, casting from the cleric spell list… I presume you have  _ Miracle  _ prepared?”

“Yes, Alecto-sama!”

“Please use it to replicate  _ Major Image  _ and produce the illusion of a tree swaying in the wind.” 

“At once!” Albedo all but threw her whole body into the casting of the spell. A moment later, a full-sized tree appeared below the base of the throne and began swaying and rustling with nonexistent breeze. It had a cartoonish look, its colours and proportions all a little exaggerated, sort of like a fake tree used for a stage prop. It was also noticeably transparent; angels of all levels possessed  _ True Seeing  _ as innately, rendering illusions faint and obvious. 

_ Actually, that’s an interesting experiment for me too. Normally a player can only create pre-determined illusions because dive gear can’t read minds well enough to recreate mental images, but the gear is also much more capable than the game allows. I should try imagining something that doesn’t exist in the game.  _ “[Major Image],” Alecto said without specifying any particular picture. 

A large rainbow shark with several pairs of bat wings on its back appeared next to the tree and took flight around it, soaring on the same invisible wind that shook the branches. After a few seconds it vanished, and Albedo’s tree soon followed suit. 

_ That’s… a little worrisome. My machine is reading my mind more adeptly than I thought it would.  _

_ This isn’t helping me get out though. I still need an exit. The game won’t eject me when I ask, so maybe I need to force it? What would do that though? Medical emergencies and sleep are the only things I can think of right now that would do it, and I’m both healthy and far too agitated to sleep…  _

_ Oh! That’s it! Maybe someone from the outside will come get me? Akatsuki might come by soon since I can’t respond to her messages. My landlady might too. I think she said she’d be coming by with the plumber tomorrow. Someone from work will have probably noticed my absence by then.  _

As she thought on possible escape routes, her eyes kept slipping back towards Albedo. The devil herself stood tall and expectant, positively vibrating at the chance to contribute to the experiment. 

_ She smells nice. Is that weird? She didn’t smell like anything in  _ Yggdrasil _ … And she’s so cute when she’s excited, with the way her wings flutter when I look at her. And the way that dress hugs her, and how she shows through it- No! Experiments! Escape! Well… then again, I never did test the R-18 content thing… hey, there’s an idea. I can try getting myself permabanned.  _

Alecto stood up from her seat on the throne. Hesitantly at first, as if somehow fearful of the outcome she desired, she started swapping out her full battle gear for her black kimono. Luckily she was still able to change clothes with the press of a button instead of dressing herself manually. 

Turning away from Albedo momentarily she then opened the front of her robe. Fully rendered breasts looked back up at her. She touched them experimentally, and they felt real enough. Rather sensitive too. This was something of an uncommon experience for her; her real body was quite flat, looking down at herself was only ever like this in adult dive games. 

Upon closing her dress back up she turned back to the eager she-devil to make her hopefully unreasonable request. “Albedo, I’m going to touch you.”

“Of course, Alecto-sama!” Albedo answered. Her tone suggested she understood her master’s intentions, and her posture changed to make herself more approachable.

She was warm up close. Alecto could feel her heat through the air, and see it in her flushed skin. She laid her hand gingerly against the she-devil’s shoulder; Albedo responded with a sharp intake of breath. Her eyes lay hooded above her rosy cheeks, staring intently at Alecto, urging her on. Alecto took that encouragement and slid her arm from Albedo’s shoulder down her arm until she held her by the wrist, and felt for a pulse; it was there. Though, by then, Alecto’s focus no longer was. 

She drew herself closer, looking Albedo clearly in the eye, and replaced her hand on her shoulder, this time resting the other against her neck. Both hands now wandered downwards until pressing on Albedo’s substantial chest. 

One final moment of hesitation later Alecto cupped Albedo in both hands. She was firm but not overly soft, perfectly pliable. Almost magnetically so. 

No game message interfered with her progress. 

Alecto made for the top of Albedo’s gown and pulled down, releasing her breasts with a comical jiggle, a move that prompted a satisfying gasp from the she-devil. Pale blue veins were visible under her translucent skin, surrounding a nipple so dark as to be almost black, stark against the surrounding white. Alecto took Albedo’s bare breasts in hand, kneading them gently and toying with her nipples, her touch now eliciting steady heavy breath. 

_ Ahhh… How long has it been since I’ve actually been with another girl that wasn’t an escort or NPC? Four years, five? And she’s not even real. I really need to get out more…  _

_ Well. No permaban message. Whoever’s running this new game, they’re clearly not  _ Yggdrasil’s _ creators. Maybe someone else sharing the same servers? Seriously, what the hell is all this?  _

After some indeterminate length of time Alecto finally let the she-devil go, prying away and pulling her dress back up to cover her chest once again. “Apologies, Albedo, I should have asked more clearly,” she said. She wasn’t sure why, but it seemed important to show courtesy even to an NPC after groping them so shamelessly. 

Albedo instead responded with a soft moan. “Shall I have my first time here?” she asked quietly, as if to herself. “Shall my mistress take me right here?”

“Uh, what?”

“May I ask how you wish to dispose of my clothes?”

“Hey, wait-”

“Would it be better if I disrobed myself? Or would you like to unwrap me, Alecto-sama? Or if we did it while I was wearing the dress, it would get dirty… no, if you want me to wear this dress, I have no objections.”

“No, we’re done with that for now.” 

“Why? Am I not not pleasing enough for my Mistress? Is there something I must do first?”

“What? No, now’s just, ah, not the time for that. We have more important things to worry about.” 

“Oh. I understand. Forgive me! I let my desires overtake the urgency of the situation,” Albedo said. 

“It’s quite alright. My desires overtook me as well, I shouldn’t lead you on like that…”

_ Why did I just do that!? I need to get out of here. I can’t focus when I’m near Albedo.  _

_ Nobody responded to my  _ Message  _ spells, but maybe there are still some people in the major cities?  _

“[Plane Shift: Midgard, Artoria, Lordsport].” 

Nothing happened, though by now she wasn’t all that surprised. The spell was expended, but she did not shift planes as intended. A strange sense of grasping about in the dark filled her mind, suggestive of an ‘Invalid Location’ error. 

_ Invalid Location? Lordsport is the starting town. The Tutorial Island is right next to it. Everyone has it as a teleport checkpoint, you can’t not! Does it still exist? Did the teleportation rules change, perhaps? _

“[Greater Teleport: Hell Point].” Invalid Location, again. 

_ Oh dear. That’s not good at all. Has the entire world outside changed? Is the rest of the Tomb even as I left it? The Throne Room looks the same, but who knows what’s happening elsewhere.  _

“[Greater Teleport: Nazarick, The Mausoleum].” 

This time, it worked. Alecto’s vision blurred and distorted, then darkened. When her vision returned, she was standing at the top of a white stone staircase, looking out upon a courtyard covered in grass and weathered tombstones and statues. Bounding the wide yard were tall pale walls, all of them overgrown with ivy and other vines. Bright moonlight cast stark shadows on the scene. 

It shouldn’t have, though. Located where it was in the dark poison swamps of Helheim, a world without a moon and hardly any starlight, Nazarick’s grounds had never known light from the sky. 

_ Where the hell… ?  _

Alecto ran forward to get a better view, and saw above her vast endless field of stars. Among those stars was not one moon, but two, one about the size of Earth’s, the other perhaps half as large. Many worlds in  _ Yggdrasil  _ had multiple moons, but none were like these with white clouds swirling across blue oceans and multicoloured continents; living worlds, in other words, not barren deserts. If she hadn’t known better, Alecto could’ve sworn she was looking not up at two moons but down upon two Earths. 

_ I need to get a better view.  _ “[Fly].” Her angel avatar came with wings, but they were inconveniently physical wings that obeyed a loose facsimile of aerodynamics, while a  _ Fly  _ spell had no such restrictions. High she pushed herself, higher and higher until freezing wind slashed her, pushing the limit of  _ Fly  _ to keep her on course. At least it didn’t hurt; angels were creatures of holy fire and feared no frost, not even from the mightiest magic. 

Stretching out forever in every direction was forest. Near the Tomb rolled low hills, but towards the horizon higher prominences and even mountains could be seen. No matter how far she looked, she saw no obvious evidence of other people, but it was hard to tell at such distance and through the discolouration of the moonlight. 

_ It’s like that, is it? Nazarick has been transported to some other game, and so have I, and not Mochi or Momonga, for some reason. I have no way of contacting the outside, no access to this place’s meta, and no way out, and now I have to explore this place manually… fuck this, I’m going to try and sleep my way out. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just hope someone finds me before the dehydration does me in.  _

_ Goddammit all!  _


	3. Chapter 3

Kumamoto Arisa woke at her customary 6:30. 

Like any other weekday she showered, made herself a light breakfast of toast and tea, and caught the 7:20 train to work. She’d put down her bag in the office and chat with fellow Astronomy Professor Tanaka about their students. She’d swipe a doughnut from Fujiwara in maths, and do her best to avoid Inugami from the chemistry department and the inevitable and interminable stories about what her cute pets did last night. Then she’d get ready to teach her Friday morning class, Introduction to Cosmology this term, and say hi to the cute counselor girl Honda on her way to class. 

If only. 

The morning did not deliver on her hopes. 

_ So it wasn’t a bad dream. Shit. Fuck. God fucking dammit! Log me out you worthless helmet! _

Arisa awoke as Alecto, still in her bed in her player house in Nazarick, wherever Nazarick was. It wasn’t a bed she’d ever used before; player houses were rarely anything more than fancy loot warehouses, and the bed was only there to begin with out of a sense of bureaucratic completeness, as if to say  _ yes in fact this is an actual house, thank you very much. _

_ Time to get to work, _ she resolved as she rolled out of bed. But where to start? Searching the area around the Tomb would be important, but there was no guarantee she would find someone who could help, or anything at all. More likely than not someone would disconnect from the outside before she could get far; she’d been on the new server for nearly eight hours now, and it was unlikely whoever was running it actually wanted her there, given the issue of cyber kidnapping liability. 

The odds of someone who knew her coming by and finding her hooked in or realising she was missing were just as high. After all, she should have been at work by now, and was no doubt missing calls from the office already. Mochi would probably check in if she was worried, and almost certainly would be. It wasn’t like Alecto to ghost her best friend, least of all on a night like this.

_ It won’t do to just wait around though. I need to keep moving. What to do about it though… well, there is one thing I need to do first, before I leave.  _

Escaping this bizarre world required her to leave and explore the outside world, but doing that required firmly establishing that all of her abilities still worked normally and how they had changed where they didn’t. She had been playing Yggdrasil far too long to run off somewhere new without mastery of her own abilities. She knew already that teleportation magic still worked, so escape should be possible in an emergency, but it was necessary to be thorough.

“[Greater Teleport: Amphitheatrum, Preset 2].”

The world transformed around her, the unfamiliar bedroom replaced with a dark tunnel. Warm sunlight poured in through the entrance a few metres ahead. Alecto walked purposefully towards the light. A portcullis initially barred her way, but relented before the Guildmaster, allowing transit to space beyond. 

Out of the tunnel lay a view familiar to any ancient Roman: a great circular arena of sand, as large as a football pitch, surrounded by row after row of seats cut from white stone. In those bleachers were thousands of occupants, unsettlingly half-formed clay golems, all eerily still and silent in the warm morning air. Thousands of glittering firefly-like  _ Continual Light  _ spells danced among the audience. 

In this colosseum, known as the Amphitheatrum, intruders to the Tomb would be the stars of the show while watching from the VIP box would be the members of Ainz Ooal Gown. Nearly every invader had met their end here, as there was no way out of the arena for enemies except to die or win. 

It also served the purpose of a training ground for the guild, as it was robust enough to take the brunt of max-level players going all-out all the time. Such training was her objective in coming here now. 

Alecto made her way towards the centre of the arena. Above her stretched a wide expanse of greyish-white tropical sky. It was only an imitation, even if a beautiful one; the Amphitheatrum lay deep underground on the Sixth Floor of Nazarick. The sky above was a colossal magic item that could replicate real day and night and even various weather types such as lightning storms. 

The smell of dust and earth and grass and flowers met Alecto’s nose as she wandered into the open air. The smell of jungle. It was striking just how bright and colourful the sensations in this new game were, actually, almost more intense than reality. 

_ Is this really supposed to be a game? I can’t imagine how much data this realism must be eating through, and that’s not mentioning the adult content… who would do something like this?  _ Her mind kept returning to that question. What motive could the creator of this place have? Were they trying to create some true artificial reality? Nothing really seemed to fit, or at least, nothing explained her presence in this place. 

A part of her wanted to relax, to sit around in the morning light while she waited for rescue and have some of the hyper-realistic food this place had to offer, but she did not have the luxury of time. 

_ Shouldn’t they be here somewhere? I think I said ‘return to stations’ last night, so they’ll be around somewhere…  _

_ Ah. There they are.  _

Movement caught her eye in the VIP box across the arena, where a small figure was waving to her. With a wordless shout the figure jumped down from a height of about six storeys, somersaulted in mid-air, and landed as though it were a butterfly descending on a flower. There was no magic involved, only pure physical prowess. The figure then ran full tilt towards Alecto, kicking up a small cloud of dust on its way. 

As it drew nearer, it’s form became apparent: a child, a girl of perhaps eleven, dressed in a matador outfit of white dragon hide. Atop her head was a messy blonde mop, and her eyes, bright as a puppy’s, were mismatched, one red and one green, below which stretched a wide gap-toothed smile to greet the newcomer. Dark brown skin and long pointed ears revealed her nature as a Dark Elf. Sewn into her matador vest was the complex crest of Ainz Ooal Gown in gold and red thread. A black whip coiled off her belt, and a decorated longbow and quiver were slung across her back. 

“Heya!” the girl greeted, flashing the ‘V’ sign of victory to her guest. 

“Good morning,” Alecto returned. “Aura, is it?”

She was addressing the Guardian of the Sixth Floor of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, Aura Bella Fiora. She was a druid who specialised in summoning and taming beasts. 

“Aura Bella Fiora, at your service, Alecto-sama!” the elf confirmed proudly. “Welcome to the level I guard!”

“Thank you, Aura. It seems I’ll be intruding for a while.” 

“What’re you saying, You are the master of Nazarick, the Supreme One, right, Alecto-sama? There’s no place you’d be intruding if you visited!”

“I see… Speaking of which, if you’re here, Mare must be somewhere nearby, right?” Alecto looked back at the VIP box, and sure enough, spotted another flicker of movement. “Ah. So he was there too.”

Upon hearing Alecto’s question, Aura blinked in shock, then turned around and roared: 

“Mare! The Supreme Being has graced us with her presence! How rude are you going to be by not showing your face to her?” She turned back to Alecto to apologise. “That’s right, Alecto-sama. He’s just really timid… Oi! Get out here now!”

A faint response could be heard, surprisingly clear despite the distance. “I- I can’t, Onee-chan…”

“Um, he’s just scared, he’s not trying to insult you or anything…” Aura’s shoulders tightened together, and her puppy-dog eyes shied away from Alecto as if she were holding a rolled-up newspaper. 

_ Is she actually afraid of me? Am truly I so fearsome?  _ “It’s alright Aura,” Alecto reassured her, using the best patient teacher tone she could muster. “I never doubted you or him at all. You’re not in any trouble.” 

Aura sighed in relief, and then she became serious again before shouting angrily at the VIP box.

“The Supreme Beings have come to visit us, but you as a Floor Guardian aren’t even here to meet them! You should know how disrespectful that is! If you’re too scared to come out, maybe a swift kick will substitute for courage!”

“Ok- okay, I’ll come out…”

“Now! How long are you going to keep Alecto-sama waiting!?” 

“I, I got it… e-eiii!” Mare had gathered up his wits, but his voice still seemed unsteady. 

Moments later a figure jumped out of the VIP box. Mare landed on his feet, though with none of the athletic grace of Aura. 

After that, he immediately began running over as quickly as he could. However, his top speed was still much slower than Aura. She must have thought so too, because she frowned and shouted:

“Hurry up!”

“Y-Yes!” 

“M- M- Mare Bello Fiore, a- at your s- service,” he said, cowering as if still expecting a reprimand. “I’m s- sorry I kept you waiting, o Supreme Ones.” The child who greeted them now looked in many respects identical to Aura, and indeed the two were twins, though his hair was much longer and also much neater. He wore a vest of blue dragon scales, and a small cape sewn from green jungle leaves. Instead of white trousers like aura, he wore a red and white plaid pleated skirt, with a short section of flesh peeking out below. The lower three-fourths of his legs were covered in white stockings. 

Mare Bello Fiore. This nervous boy, like Aura, was a Guardian of the Sixth Floor of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, a mighty boss monster of no small infamy on the  _ Yggdrasil  _ forums. 

“Don’t keep the Supreme Being waiting, Mare!” Aura reprimanded. 

“Seriously, it’s no problem,” Alecto replied. “As I said, you’re not in any trouble for being nervous.” 

That didn’t stop Aura from pinching his ear. “Don’t be rude to the Supreme Beings!”

“Ow! Nee-san, that hurt!”

“Yeah, and it’s gonna keep hurting if you don’t show up right away next time!” 

The two of them talked back and forth for a while, interacting in ways no  _ Yggdrasil  _ NPC had ever been encoded with the intelligence for. Acting, for all the world, like real people.  _ They would clearly pass even the most stringent Turing test. These must be the Aura and Mare Bukubukuchagama wanted to see, so lively and dynamic,  _ Alecto thought, remembering her old guildmate. 

_ I should call Buku - no Izumi - up when I get out. It’s been a while since we last saw one another…  _

“I’m glad to see that the two of you are in good spirits.”

“I’m positively overflowing with energy!” Aura announced proudly. “Although it’s been a bit boring recently. It would be nice if we had an intruder or two.”

“I, I would rather not have to meet intruders… they, they’re scary…”

After hearing Mare’s words, Aura’s expression changed. “Haa. Alecto-sama, please excuse me for a while. Mare, come with me.”

“O-Oww… Nee-chan, that hurts…”

Aura pinched Mare by the tip of one of his ears and dragged him away from the group. Then, she began whispering into Mare’s ear. Even from a distance one could tell that she was scolding him. 

After watching the reprimanding proceed for a minute or two, Alecto called out to the twins. “That should be enough, Aura, don’t you think?”

“Alecto-sama! But, but as a Guardian, Mare said-”

“It’s fine. I understand how you feel. It is only natural that you would feel unhappy if Mare, as a Floor Guardian, said such a cowardly thing, especially in my presence. However, I’m certain that if anyone invaded the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, you and Mare would fearlessly step forward to engage them, as I have watched you both do many times before. There is no need for additional admonishment as long as one does what is required of them when the time comes.”

Alecto walked up to between the two of them and helped Mare up.

“And Mare, even if I were angry, I couldn’t stay that way after seeing how your sister scolded you. Anyways… Aura, I think you said something about being bored because there were no intruders?”

“Ah, no, that, about that…”

On seeing Aura’s fearful reaction, Alecto felt bad about asking his question. “It’s okay, feel free to speak your mind.”

“Well, yes, a little. There’s nobody around here who can spar with me for more than five minutes.”

“I see how that might be troublesome. Sparring is how one keeps up their skill after all… As it happens, I’m here to run some experiments, so perhaps we can kill two rocs with one stone?”

[Summon Monster VII]. 

Alecto cast this spell nonverbally, something that required a lot of actual practice on the part of a player in  _ Yggdrasil  _ due to limitations of dive gear and how well it could interpret one’s thoughts, though a skill Alecto had trained hard to master given its great utility. 

The spell in question was capable of summoning a monster of seventy percent of the user’s caster level to a maximum of level 70, or an assembly of less powerful creatures; for this occasion she chose the former, summoning forth a single Spirit Roc. 

Amidst air ripples similar to those of a teleport animation, a transparent glowing blue-grey bird emerged. One might think it akin to a modern hawk or eagle, for it bore the hooked beak and long talons of a powerful raptor, though at four metres tall and over ten long its scale more in line with its distant therapod ancestors than even the mightiest modern birds. 

The bird let out a deep squawk and stared at Alecto as if awaiting instructions. She could feel a strange connection with it, akin to an invisible tether in her gut. 

“Is that a Spirit Roc?” Aura asked. Her face bore the look of a collector locating their next great find. “Did you summon it?” 

“I did. I can use this particular summoning ability at-will, so I thought I’d use it for some experiments. First, can you please attack it, Aura?”

“Ooh! Can I?”

“Attack away.”

Aura didn’t hesitate. She opened with a crack of her black whip, which slashed without resistance through the ghostly bird. This was only to be expected; weapon attacks on incorporeal creatures were subject to a 50% miss chance no matter one’s level or weapon choice. 

Her second crack struck true though. The whip struck the roc’s head with great force, much more than its mass and acceleration would suggest. The bird did not retaliate. Alecto could feel why: she simply hadn’t told it to. It would not respond with force until she allowed it. It was damaged, though, she could feel that just as clearly. 

_ Great. Friendly fire is possible… absolutely lovely, delightful, for fuck’s sake, why!?  _

_ Not that it’s a huge surprise though, I was kind of expecting something like this. _

The inability to deal damage to players in one’s own party or to friendly NPCs was key to combat  _ Yggdrasil,  _ the fact that made it possible for one to unleash completely upon their enemies. Its absence especially hampered mages such as Alecto, since so many of the most potent spells were area-of-effect. 

Perhaps it was a moot point anyway. Without a game menu, there was no way to add someone to her party in the first place. 

Aura continued her fight for a little while longer, probing the bird for weaknesses, but soon enough subdued it. The bird fell to the ground with a strangled squawk and vanished into nothing. 

“That wasn’t very strong, was it? I just hit it a few times and it died.” Aura said. She sounded disappointed, and was clearly itching for another fight. She was correct in this; Spirit Rocs were unexceptional enemies even for their level, lacking any particular strengths other than incorporeality. 

“Today’s about quantity, not quality, but don’t worry, there’s a lot more where that came from.” 

_ Alright. Basic spellcasting and spell-like abilities both seem to work. I’ll have to go through my whole list at some point to be clear about everything, but that’s over a thousand spells, and I don’t have the time.  _

_ So what next? Magic items? Yeah, that’ll do.  _

Upon Alecto’s fingers were many rings, ranging from simple to ornate. She chose a gold band set with a large ruby, and without trying through normal game mechanics she attempted to activate it by simply staring intently, focusing on the ring and imagining it activating. Sure enough, it did: the ruby glowed brightly, and she could feel a sense of weight and power from it. It was something like balancing a cup full of burning liquid on the back of her hand, sloshing around barely contained and demanding to be unleashed. Alecto obliged and pointed her hand towards an open spot on the ground a dozen or so metres away. 

A small tornado of fire erupted where she pointed, then began swelling rapidly until reaching a final height of over six metres. The crimson inferno threw off gusts of scorching air in all directions. So intense was the heat that it even so far away a normal person would have been burned by them, but Alecto was no such thing, so it had no effect on her. 

Soon, the vast cyclone of fire, swallowing the surrounding air as it burned hot enough to melt metal, began to flicker and shudder as it took a humanoid form.

Primal Fire Elementals could be said to be among the mightiest of all elemental spirits. At level 112, they were strong enough even Alecto could not ignore it if she encountered it in the wild. 

Much as she had with the roc, Alecto felt a mysterious connection to the Primal Fire Elemental, though it subtly differed in a way she couldn’t quite put her finger on. 

“Uwah...”

Aura was watching it intently as she made noises of surprise. As she looked upon the top tier elemental, something that even her summoning powers would not be able to bring forth, Aura’s face bore a look of excited admiration, like a child who had just received a dearly beloved present. 

“Do you want to fight it?” 

Aura nodded vigorously. 

“This time, Mare, you should join her.”

“Eh? Ehhhhh?” Mare looked quite stunned. He seemed to have been grateful for the lack of attention on him in the past few minutes. “Uh, I’m sorry, I just remembered something urgent I had to do…”

But Aura was having none of it. “Mare.” she said sternly. A hand reached out and firmly grasped Mare’s arm, not allowing him to escape. His sister had no intention of allowing him to flee. 

She dragged Mare by the arm towards the Primal Fire Elemental. Mare’s eyes looked around, and he looked desperately to Alecto for help. 

In response to his hopeful smile that blossomed delicately on his face, Alecto simply clapped. “Go get it!” she cheered.

The flower of hope promptly wilted.

Thus, with the twins resolved towards battle, Alecto ordered the Primal Fire Elemental to attack them through her mental connection. As the conflagration that was the Primal Fire Elemental approached them, the twins met its attack with Aura as the frontliner while Mare was the rear guard. Aura slashed at the Primal Fire Elemental with her whip, while Mare used magic to deal damage and support his sister. Having quickly sized up its strength, Aura proceeded to summon several beasts to aid her, including a huge green lizard and a bear with six legs, then transformed into a beast herself, choosing the body of a mid-tier water elemental to counter the fire of her foe. 

In the end the Primal Fire Elemental lasted slightly longer than the Spirit Roc. It was not a close fight. Even a top-tier level 112 elemental stood no chance against a boss monster that could face down whole raid parties of experienced and well-prepared players and win, let alone two at once. 

With a final gurgling road the gigantic Primal Fire Elemental perished, slowly melting into nothing, and the blazing heat that it left in its wake ebbed. As the Fire Elemental disappeared, Alecto could feel the link she had to it fading away, like smoke on the wind.

The two of them played their roles as frontliner and rear guard perfectly, with flawless teamwork. At the same time, Momonga could feel the reality of this battle, completely unlike those he had fought in the game.

“Spectacular! Good show, you two,” Alecto said, clapping politely. 

The twins smiled happily as they heard her sincere praise. 

“Thank you, Alecto-sama! It’s been some time since we had to work so hard!”

The two of them tried to wipe off their sweat, but more of it beaded on their foreheads, rolling down their dark skin without pause. 

_ Next test then.  _ Alecto reached into her inventory and withdrew three cups and a silver pitcher. Condensation clung to the sides of the jug, distorting elaborate engravings. This magic item was Decanter of Endless Water, an item of almost universal and often underappreciated utility. 

“You two look like you need a drink. I know I do,” Alecto said, pouring out two glasses and offering them to the twins. 

“Eh? But that’s not good, right, Momonga-sama…”

“Y-Yes, I can make water with my magic too…”

“Why? I’ve already poured some out, it would be a shame to just leave it.” 

“Fuwa~”

“Fuee~”

Aura and Mare’s ears turned red, and they shyly, nervously reached out to take the glasses.

“Th-Thank you, Alecto-sama!”

“To, to think you would pour water for us, Alecto-sama!”

_ Is this really so delightful? It’s only water…  _

Aura enthusiastically took the glass in both hands and chugged it in seconds, letting droplets of water escape the corner of her mouth and down the smooth curves of her throat and onto the jerkin covering her chest. Mare held his cup with both hands and slowly sipped from it. The differences between them were obvious even in the way they drank water.

Alecto poured out the third glass for herself and took a long drink. It was truly excellent water, cold and crisp and refreshing. It reminded her of a time long ago, when she’d been hiking in British Columbia as a teenager and tasted glacial meltwater directly off the ice on a warm afternoon. 

“Do you want more?” she offered, on seeing that the twins were both finished. 

“I’ve had enough,” Aura said. 

“M- me too, I’m not thirsty anymore,” Mare agreed. 

“Alright.” Alecto took their glasses back and placed her various items back in her inventory.

OOOOO

What to test next wasn’t really clear. Her basic tools such as spellcasting and items were all seemingly in working order. She had an extensive arsenal of abilities and special traits between her angelic powers, wizard magic, and collected items, so testing absolutely everything was out, but a more systematic examination was certainly in order before she departed. Any surprises could be disastrous, after all. 

It would also be critical to get used to the new ease of use her abilities had taken on so she could use them more effectively. 

_ Yes, let’s focus on that.  _

“Let’s continue,” she declared. “Aura, Mare, please bring out some training dummies and pop monsters of a variety of levels.” 

The next hour passed in a heated blur, as Alecto put herself and the elf twins through the paces. She tried over two hundred spells and almost as many item effects, tested her passive traits, practiced flying with both magic and her wings, polymorphed into various other creatures, and more. The result was almost always the same. But for more and more realistic details and an easier user interface, nearly everything worked as she predicted. 

It was quite a relief, truth be told. She now knew that this world ran on mostly the same rules as  _ Yggdrasil,  _ and that she could generally predict how new situations would unfold based on her experience. 

The problem was the NPCs. The increased intelligence that had affected Albedo, Aura, and Mare extended to every creature she tested; even the lowest of beasts was now able to adapt to changing situations, such as becoming wary after being hurt instead of persisting in mindless attacks the way they ought to. Some even tried to run away, demonstrating that aggro rules no longer applied. Facing enemies, especially high-level ones, would be most troublesome now. 

Though she was not totally pleased with the results, the first phase of her plan was mostly complete, so Alecto decided to move on.  _ I’ll need to recruit some help, and these NPCs are intelligent enough to do the trick. Hopefully they can receive a  _ Sending  _ spell.  _

“[Mass Sending: Albedo, Demiurge, Rubedo, Cocytus, Shalltear],” she said. “Gather in the Amphitheatrum on the Sixth Floor at 9:30.” 

No response could be heard, but this time she was not phased.  _ Mass Sending  _ was a mass voice message spell capable of one-way communication only. 

“Aura, Mare, we’ll be getting more guests soon,” she announced. “This wreckage will need to be cleared away.” 

“More guests?” Aura sounded sceptical. 

“Yes. I have already ordered the other Guardians here. They will arrive within twenty minutes.”

“Eh? Then, then we need to get ready for them! Hurry it up!” she shouted, prompting the various monsters of the cleanup crew to scramble to action. “Hmph. All the Guardians- that means Shalltear’s coming too?”

“It does.”

“Haa.” Aura’s long ears drooped melodramatically. Alecto didn’t need to ask to know why; the two Guardians were programmed to have a poor relationship, a result of their creators being siblings who fought often. 

Mare for his part seemed apprehensive of more people coming but expressed no displeasure at Shalltear’s mention. Most likely he wasn’t so predisposed to disliking her. 

Aura grumbled to herself a bit more, but nevertheless she and her twin busied themselves cleaning up the debris of the last hour. 

Soon enough the first arrival made their entrance. 

“Oya, am I the first to arrive?” she called. 

The tone was archaic and formal, but the voice itself was a young girl’s. She wore a black ball gown which looked soft to the touch. Her skirt was puffed up into a voluminous bell shape. Above that was a bolero edged with frills, lace, and ribbons, as well as a pair of long black silk gloves.

Her skin was as pale as wax, and her long silver hair was tied up into a ponytail that descended from one side of her head down to the small of her back and left a few strands to delicately frame her pallid face. Her deep red pupils were filled with a look of seductive delight. 

She had the appearance, Alecto felt, of a cute girl trying to look like a beautiful woman, with about 80% success. She was perhaps fourteen years old or even younger, yet, her breasts bulged proudly forward in a decidedly unchildlike manner. 

Behind her was a sphere of distorted air. It vaguely resembled a snowglobe, or perhaps a lens. Light twisted in spirals around and into the sphere, and echoes of what lay on the other side came out distorted in a similar twisting pattern. It was one of Alecto’s favourite spell animations, a portal that resembled a real wormhole. Or at least, reflected what physics said one would look like. 

“Weren’t you told not to frivolously use  _ Gate _ in Nazarick? We’re warded against teleportation, after all. You should be able to walk here, so shouldn’t you have come on foot, Shalltear?”

The annoyed voice came from Aura. There was no trace of her previous puppyish tone in those cold words, only a seething hostility.

Mare was trembling at the sight, and he slowly edged himself away from his sister. Alecto didn’t blame him; In truth, the speed at which the leopard called Aura had changed its spots startled her a little too. 

The girl who had come here via the highest tier of teleportation magic did not even bother looking at the hostile elf. Instead, she swiftly advanced towards Alecto. 

The overpowering scent of some kind of perfume hung around her, momentarily pleasant but soon enough quite burdensome on the nose. “Huah, something reeks like blood,” The annoyed words belonged to Aura, who was scowling with deep hostility at the newcomer. None of her childish excitement remained, her face pure predator. She advanced towards Shalltear. “Could it be that your rotting corpse is showing?” 

Shalltear pursed her lips. “What poor taste,” she said, her voice smooth like silk and sharp as glass. “Is this not a formal meeting? Do try to have  _ some  _ composure,  _ little girl _ .” Leaving Aura to fume and sputter, she turned away to bow before Alecto. “Ah, my dear Mistress Alecto-sama, the only one I cannot rule over.” She smiled coyly, licking her carmine lips with her long slick tongue, and moving in for a hug. 

“Greetings, Shalltear,” Alecto said, denying her embrace doing her best to keep a straight face. Shalltear played the part of a seductress well; were she but a few years older, she might have made a decent one too. As it was she was like an 8th-grader acting in a school play, and the discrepancy between expectation and reality was comical. 

Less so now than it used to be, though. Under  _ Yggdrasil  _ rules she could only make the occasional pre-programmed dirty joke or obscene comment. Now, though, she meant business, as Alecto had learned through hard experience. 

_ Or was it a firm but soft experience…  _

_ No! Down girl. None of that now. _

“That’s enough out of you, corpse breath,” Aura growled, interrupting Shalltear’s advance. 

Shalltear looked annoyed, her composure slightly fractured. “Ara, you’re still here, shorty? I couldn’t see you, so I thought you might have gone.” Aura’s face was now twitching with anger. Shalltear, ignoring her altogether, turned to Mare, who was trying to make himself seem small. “It must be so hard for you, having a sister like that _.  _ Best to leave her soon, lest you end up like her.” 

Mare blanched, knowing that he was being used to instigate a fight and wanting no part in it. 

Aura finally dropped the bomb. “Leave him outta this, fake tits!”

Shalltear finally lost it. “What the hell are you talking about?” she said, her voice squeaky with anger. 

Shalltear Bloodfallen, true vampire and Guardian of the Shield of Nazarick, nearly the toughest boss ever designed by  _ Yggdrasil  _ players, had a-cup angst. 

And Alecto was the reason why. 

_ Hah! I’m the one who insisted Peroroncino couldn’t make a Floor Guardian an actual vampire loli. He must have put that little tidbit in her flavour text to get later on.  _

“Hmph! It’s so obvious. I mean, how many pads did you stuff in there? 

“Uwah! Uh. No no no!” Shalltear started waving her hands in front of her, as if she could dispel Aura’s words as one might a fart. 

“You packed so much in there- I bet it shifts around when you run, right?” 

“Sh- shut up shorty! It’s not like you have anything to show off either! At least I have  _ something  _ to show.”

“Hah! No you don’t. It’s pads all the way down. Besides, I’m only 24! I’ll be all curvy one day! Dead girls never grow, though. How sad, not to have any future…” 

“You shitty brat! It’s too late to regret your words now!”

Reddish-black mist boiled off Shalltear’s hands. Aura readied her whip in anticipation.

Alecto by that point had turned away with a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.  _ Pero! Buku! I’ve missed you two so much these last years…  _ There was so much of the siblings in their creations that she was reeling from the nostalgia. The pair had even once had an argument that went almost exactly like this, when Pereroncino had accused his sister of stuffing her chest, an allegation Bukubukuchagama had countered by saying he stuffed his pants at parties. At least, those few he was ever invited to. 

Just as the two girls were pulling out weapons to actually fight and Alecto was considering intervening, another voice was heard in the arena, taking the girls’ attention away from each other.

“What. A. Ruckus.”

It was an inhuman voice, a harsh monotonous staccato like metal scraping on ice. It came from what appeared to be a three-metre-tall praying mantis made of dusty blue ice. It had a spiked tail twice as long as its body, four arms, and two legs. All over its body were spikes that resembled jagged icicles. Huge mandibles extending from the sides of its head looked powerful enough to cut steel. On its back were several weapons and a shield, including a long, silvery polearm and a black-hilted sword that seemed to draw light out of the very air around it. 

This creature was Cocytus, the demon of pure ice, the Guardian of the Fourth Floor of Nazarick. 

“You. Stand. Before. A. Supreme. Being. Control. Yourselves.” 

“That little brat started it!” Shalltear protested, pointing an accusatory gloved finger at Aura. 

“Actually-” 

“Actually, you two, play time’s over,” Alecto said. “Welcome, Guardian Cocytus. Thank you for coming on short notice. And, for your excellent timing.” 

“I. Came. As. Immediately. As. I. Could. Upon. Receiving. Your. Summons. Alecto-sama.” The air in front of his face fogged up as he breathed, with tiny sparkles of ice crystals glinting in the sunlight. The cold he exuded was no less potent than the heat of the Primordial Fire Elemental had been. “Mere. Minutes. Are. An. Eternity. Where. The. Orders. Of. The. Supreme. Being. Are. Concerned.”

“I see…”

“Even. So. There. Are. Still. Things. Which. Must. Be. Done. So. I. Was. Not. Free. At. All.”

“Oh? Things that had to be done? What things were these, might I ask?”

“Training. In. Order. To. Be. Ready. To. Deploy. At. Any. Time.” Cocytus was the strongest pure warrior in Nazarick; it made sense that his creator, one of Ainz Ooal Gown’s best fighters, would include the need to practice constantly in his background data.

“Ah. Yes, that is wise indeed. You’ve worked hard on our behalf, so you have my thanks.”

“After. Hearing. Your. Praise. The. Task. Is. Not. As. Tiring.” Cocytus lowered his head until it was only half a metre higher than Alecto’s. “I. See. Demiurge. And. Albedo. Have. Arrived.” 

Alecto turned to follow his gaze, and sure enough saw two figures approaching. One was Albedo, elegant in bearing and as radiant as the full moon. 

The other was a man in a red- and yellow-striped suit. He was tall at about 180 centimetres, and had neatly-combed black hair and round pince-nez glasses, which sat over kindly eyes so narrow they could hardly be said to be open at all. His skin was tan, and the way he walked and carried himself out one in the mind of a professional lawyer or businessman. However, his gentlemanly appearance could not hide the air of evil that radiated from him, nor could it hide the scorpion’s tail that extended from his waist, segmented and tipped with a hooked 20-centimetre-long stinger. 

This was the fiery demon Demiurge, creation of Ulbert Alain Odle, Guardian of the Seventh Floor of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick. 

He didn’t seem quite himself though. “Forgive me for keeping everyone waiting,” he said absentmindedly, looking towards the group but not really  _ at  _ them. He bowed perfunctorily before his own thoughts seemed to press in again. 

Albedo by contrast was laser-focused. “Good morning, Alecto-sama,” she said softly. 

Her gentle smile and the slight blush of her cheeks proved far more effective than Shalltear’s more aggressive efforts at seduction had been, and Alecto found herself turning away to keep her own flush from being obvious. 

_ Why did I do that why did I do that why did I do that-  _

“Welcome, Albedo and Demiurge,” she managed. 

“Oh my, another party so soon?” 

A new voice could be heard, and Alecto welcomed the distraction. 

The voice belonged to a woman. She was dressed in a laboratory coat as white as her skin, black gloves, and tall black boots. A mass of red hair was tied in a messy bun, and from her head protruded two small backwards-sweeping horns. She had a pleasant face and light brown eyes. Differing colouration or no, her family resemblance with Albedo was obvious. 

Rubedo, Guardian of the Fifth Floor of Nazarick, and younger sister to the Guardian Overseer. 

She was also one of Alecto’s own creations. 

“If I’d known I’d have gotten dressed up. Though, it seems the mood is not so festive… Ah. My humble greetings, dear Creator,” she said, bowing to her maker. “And Nee-san, you’re looking happy- ooh, I see. Well then.” 

Albedo shot her sister a furious look, a look that given her powers almost certainly  _ could  _ kill. Rubedo responded with a Cheshire cat grin. 

_ Hmm. That’s actually really interesting. I never programmed her to act like a bratty little sister. Apparently they can fill in the gaps now.  _

_ It’s actually interesting that she remembers last night, too. NPCs usually forget specific incidents the moment they’re over. I wonder just how much they can retain? It’s probably a lot.  _

“Welcome, Rubedo. As we are all met, let’s begin this meeting without delay.”

“Yes, let’s,” Albedo said. “Allow us to pledge our loyalty to the Supreme One!” 

All the Guardians nodded as one, and before Alecto could interrupt, they had lined up before her. Albedo stood at their head, while the other Guardians formed a line behind her. All the Guardians wore solemn, respectful expressions. They showed no signs of playing around. 

Shalltear, who stood on one end of the line, stepped forward. “Shalltear Bloodfallen, Guardian of the First, Second and Third Floors, presents herself to the Master.” She went to one knee, one hand pressed against her chest, and bowed deeply. 

After that, Cocytus stepped forward and said: “Cocytus. Guardian. Of. The. Fourth. Floor. Presents. Himself. To. The. Master.” Much like Shalltear had, he knelt before Momonga like a vassal before a lord. 

Rubedo went next. “Rubedo, Guardian of the Sixth Floor, presents herself the Master.” 

Then, it was the twin dark elves’ turn:

“Aura Bella Fiora, Guardian of the Sixth Floor, presents herself to the Master.” 

“M- Mare Bello F- Fiore, also Guardian of the Sixth Floor, presents himself to the Master.”

Demiurge’s demeanour was suitably respectful, but he remained distracted. “Demiurge, Guardian of the Seventh Floor, presents himself to the Master.” 

And finally, “Albedo, Guardian Overseer of Nazarick, presents herself to the Master. With the exception of Eight Floor Guardian Victim, all guardians are now gathered. And thus, we do pledge our utmost and undying loyalty.”

They gave another synchronised group bow, slower and more deliberate this time. Their deference had a certain unfamiliar weight to it, Alecto found. It was harder to simply accept it and move on than it had been in years prior. Even if they were just fancy AIs, it seemed their newfound intelligence had a way of impressing on her subconscious. 

“First of all, I would like to thank you all for coming here. Please, stand, and raise your heads,” Alecto said. 

The Guardians obliged, all seven standing to attention and wiping the sand and dust from their knees. 

“There is no need for thanks. We are all Alecto-sama’s loyal subordinates. To us, she is our Supreme Overlord,” Albedo responded, on behalf of the gathered guardians. None opposed the Guardian Overseer’s statement. 

“I must be blunt: the Great Tomb of Nazarick has been caught up in some kind of unknown situation, and may be in great danger.” 

There was a general turning of heads and murmuring at that statement. “Exactly at midnight last night, one of my most important powers stopped working. It is a Spell-Like Ability called the System Console, one that allows me to contact other Supreme Beings, such as members of my or other guilds. I have no idea what could even block such a power. Several other abilities related to it have also ceased to function, leaving me more limited in communications and mobility than I’m accustomed. 

“When I ventured to the surface to investigate, however, I found that not only is this power not working, but  _ Nazarick has itself been relocated _ . We are no longer in the swamps of Helheim, nor on any world of  _ Yggdrasil,  _ even the outer planes like the Nine Heavens or the Abyss. The world outside is forest and hills in every direction. 

“I did not investigate further at the time, fearing that I was dreaming or hallucinating, and instead went to sleep it off. This didn’t help. The System Console is still missing, though extensive testing has now demonstrated that all my other abilities still work. 

“I need you all to keep a close eye out to determine whether anything unusual is going on in the Tomb. Watch carefully for anything out of the ordinary. Regrettably I cannot be more specific, as it is the very unknown nature of our situation that’s the problem. When we are done here, return to your stations and inform your subordinates of what I have told you here. 

“Before you leave though, I must ask each of you if anything strange has happened in the last few hours. Ask this as well of your respective Area Guardians when you return, and report to me if they have anything to say.”

Each Floor Guardian responded:

“There are no abnormalities in the Seventh Floor.”

“Same with the Sixth Floor.”

“I-It’s as Nee-chan says.”

“The Fifth Floor is pure strangeness all the way down, but nothing new has appeared.”

“The. Fourth. Floor. Is. As Normal.”

“Nothing strange has been sighted in the First to Third Floors.”

“And the Throne Room is quiet as always.” Albedo looked back at the Guardians, and after hearing their replies and seeing what was written on their faces, she said: “Regretfully none of us have noticed anything strange. Alecto-sama, I shall investigate the Eighth Floor ri-” 

Alecto cut her off. “You will do no such thing. Seek out Victim and to Aureole Omega and have them report anything out of sorts, but under no circumstances should you wander around that place. Actually, no, don’t do that, just  _ Message  _ them. Travel to the Eighth Floor is forbidden except on my specific order.” 

“As you command!” 

“Then I shall investigate the surface,” Shalltear declared. 

Alecto countermanded this as well. “No, I must go to the surface myself; Shalltear, you need to-” 

_ Wait- did she really say she would go to the surface? Did I hear that correctly? Does that mean I can take NPCs outside now? _

_ Well. That changes things considerably.  _

One of the fundamental premises of guild base NPCs was that they were limited to their base. Allowing dungeon bosses into the wild under player control would be, needless to say,  _ very bad _ . Apparently this was a design philosophy this new game lacked. 

“I will be going up myself, and I will need scouts. Aura, Mare, Rubedo, and Demiurge, I will need the three of you, actually, for your summons, especially those with high mobility and high stealth. Come to the surface after relaying my orders to your subordinates.” 

The guardians were all quite shocked at this declaration. 

“You will be going yourself, Alecto-sama?” Albedo asked incredulously. 

“Yes. That’s the whole point of the exercise, making sure I can do so safely.” 

“Understood!”

“Good. Get to it then. [Greater Teleport].” 

And with that, Alecto vanished in an interdimensional haze, leaving the Guardians to their tasks. 


End file.
